Founded by Lebanese entrepreneur Mireille Hayek, Em Sherif’s story traces how a home-kitchen tradition evolved into a global gastronomic brand by turning memory, adaptability and female leadership into its strongest ingredients
Born from the intuition of a home kitchen, Em Sherif has become one of the most striking examples of how female leadership and cultural memory can turn into a global force in gastronomy, today representing the Lebanese table in cities around the world.
“If a woman wants it, she can do anything.” We have heard this sentence for years. Yet, most of the time, it lingers in the air as a romantic motivational cliché. Until you come face to face with a woman who stepped out of her home kitchen and built a global gastronomic brand that now represents Lebanese cuisine across different cities of the world. This is exactly where the story of Lebanese entrepreneur Mireille Hayek begins. Without a professional kitchen background, without formal culinary training, without passing through Michelin-starred kitchens… Instead, she trusted memory, intuition and a culinary culture passed down from generation to generation. Today, Em Sherif is not merely a restaurant brand; it is one of the global ambassadors of the Lebanese table.
After spending the entire day working in the kitchen and completing her inspections, Mireille comes to sit next to me at the table. We chat while she invites me to taste the dishes and asks for my opinions. I ask her whether she truly wants my honest feedback. I tell her that I love everything I tasted — especially the garlic-marinated chicken skewers — but that the Lebanese-style minced meat kebab does not fully align with our local palate. She listens carefully. She could have said, “This is our style; we serve it this way in all 18 of our locations worldwide.” But she does the opposite. She asks about our style. I explain: No cinnamon, no onion and no heavy spice mix. I describe the Adana-style version — just salt, red pepper flakes and sometimes finely chopped kapia peppers. She immediately calls the chef and relays the recipe. Ten minutes later, the new kebab arrives. She tastes it herself and loves it. She instructs the team to revise the recipes in Istanbul accordingly.
This may seem like a small detail. But to me, this moment is one of the clearest illustrations of Mireille’s leadership and the reason this brand continues to grow: Listening, adapting, and not being afraid of change. It is precisely here that the phrase “If a woman wants it, she can do anything” stops being a romantic slogan and becomes real. Because wanting alone is not enough. You must take risks. You must be willing not to be taken seriously. In a male-dominated gastronomy world, trusting “knowledge that comes from home” requires courage. And this is exactly what Mireille has done: Investing not in technical diplomas but in her own culinary memory.
In today’s gastronomic world, “technical superiority” is still widely celebrated. Yet in recent years, another value has been rising globally: Memory cooking. Grandmothers’ recipes, local table rituals and cultural context. Em Sherif positioned itself intuitively in the right place long before this wave gained momentum. Because its cuisine does not come from culinary schools, but from home. From a mother’s pot, family tables, holiday meals and long communal gatherings. That is why when we look at Em Sherif, we do not see a conventional restaurant chain. This is a “table culture brand.” Something far beyond a business that sells menus. It is a model that exports sharing rituals, seating traditions, the rhythm of eating and the language of service together. And that is precisely why it does not lose its soul as it grows — on the contrary, its story becomes even more visible.
One of the most common problems we see in gastronomy today is that brands start to resemble one another as they expand. The same plates, the same décor, the same presentation language. Mireille says they consciously avoid this trap. They design every new opening not as a franchise duplication, but as an extension of the home table in another city. They constantly return to the source: The home kitchen, the family table and the culture of sharing.
Sometimes this approach creates symbols that may appear small but carry great meaning. “We were the first Lebanese restaurant to invite people to eat hummus with a spoon” is the most striking example. This is not a presentation detail. It represents a change in how food is approached. Moving hummus from the category of a quickly consumed mezze to the center of the table. Slowing down. Inviting people to taste. Transforming Lebanese cuisine from something considered casual into an elegant, refined gastronomic narrative — without losing its soul.
So what continues to motivate Mireille to come back to the table every single day after all this success? The answer is simple, yet powerful: People continue to gather. Sitting around the same table. Talking, laughing and sharing. The table remains a unifying space.
For me, however, the most striking aspect of this story is this: This brand was not born in an investment fund presentation. It began in a home kitchen. A woman trusted her intuition. She dared not be taken seriously. She built her own perspective. And today, she stands as the owner of one of the strongest gastronomic brands, carrying Lebanese culinary memory to the world. If a woman wants it… In some stories, this sentence is not a slogan — it is reality itself.
